Looking At The Closing Of The Bob Mercer Bureau Like A Debate Judge

Sometimes I get the feeling that debaters, debate coaches, former debaters, and former debate coaches are the only people who read this blog. On the possibility that normal human beings  drop by from time to time, I need to clarify a few terms.

Debate judges have preferences, but because it's debate, they use a fancy word like paradigms. On the one end of the spectrum is the games player who believes the resolution does not matter. Debate can be about the act of debating or the importance of Dr. Seuss or involve interpretative dance rather than a spoken case. (To the best of my knowledge, no high school judge in South Dakota fits this category.) On the other end of the spectrum is the lay judge who sees one or two rounds a season and is nearly impossible to prepare for. Needless to say, if a games player and a lay judge serve on a three judge panel, their decisions will nearly always differ.

Online reflections on the Aberdeen American News decision to close its Pierre bureau remind me of ballots I have read by judges who were on opposite ends of the judging spectrum as they adjudicated the same round. 

From Charlie Hoffman commenting at Dakota War College,

40 some years ago I remember my father saying that the problem in America is too many people just don’t give a damn. Today he would obviously be saying that the problem in America is too many people just don’t give a damn about the truth, they make their own up. Bob Mercer very well could be South Dakota’s last bastion of unbiased journalism based purely on facts.

Then there's this Larry Kurz tweet

Important to remember @pierremercer has been the voice of South Dakota politics sanitization since Bill Janklow raided the whorehouses in Deadwood to distract from his role in the murder of Jancita Eagle Deer. #sdleg

— interested party (@larry_kurtz) July 12, 2018

I'll try to be a tabula rasa judge on this one.  South Dakota government is a musty old boys club that needs to be exposed to a lot more reporting. As he reports on  state government on a full time basis, Mercer does yeoman work. Many of the committee and commission meetings he covered sound more painful than a novice debate round where all of the debaters read arguments they don't understand because varsity debaters have provided the novice the arguments two minutes before the round began.

Unless we make frequent trips to Pierre, Mercer's coverage is the only way many of us learn about the legislative and administrative sausage making. Mercer's opinion columns and blog posts reflect his Republican preferences, but if newspapers don't distinguish between news and opinion as they publish those columns that's on the publisher not the writer.

A Modest Proposal For Meet The Press South Dakota

John Thune was apparently on Meet the Press this morning. Coincidently, a Ryan Cooper column at The Week asserts that a typical Meet the Press segment is "short, dull, clichéd, and barely touch[es] the subject on hand." According to Cooper, the long running Sunday morning staple "has become completely worthless. Further, the program is "neither informative nor interesting." Regular viewers  "find the same dozen or so tired D.C. insiders [who] blithely opine on stuff they know little or nothing about." The opportunities for snark abound, but I will forego all of them because Cooper has an interesting proposal to improve the program that a South Dakota television program could adapt for the state.

In short Cooper suggests having half-hour conversations between writers interested in the subject, experts, and public officials. He offers several examples like this one: "journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates and economist Jared Bernstein interview Paul Ryan on his poverty plan."

Off the top of my head, I can think of four or five segments that would be worthwhile. I prefer a bit more of a lion's den approach rather than the standard interviewer from the left and interviewer from the right approach. The format would be a table, comfortable chairs, and coffee for everyone but Heidelberger who would wave his arms too much if caffeinated.

Mike Rounds interviewed by Cory Heidelberger and Representative Bernie Hunhoff.

Rick Wieland interviewed by Pat Powers and Representative Rev. Steve Hickey

Rapid City Mayor Sam Kookier and Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether interviewed by John Tsitrian and Scott Ehrisman.

Secretary of Education Melody Schopp interviewed by Associated School Boards of South Dakota Executive Director Wade Pogany and me (provided the camera were kept on the other two so as the good children of South Dakota did not suffer nightmares. If they won't agree to that condition, Representative Jim Bolin or Mike Larson would be more telegenic than I.)

It would be an important public service to have Governor Daugaard interviewed about Native American policy. I have to confess I'm unsure whom the Native American community would deem able to best ask questions that advocated their interests.

Quite frankly, I would love to see Libertarian blogger Ken Santema interview anyone in South Dakota politics.

If the television station airing the program would demand an official journalist to moderate, David Montgomery or Kevin Woster strike me as able to do the job. If nothing else this program would allow South Dakota voters and television viewers to see officials questioned by folks a less willing to accept press releases as the final word on a matter.